What ABV will my apple juice make?
Whatever its gravity says, and nothing else. Apple juice is nearly all fermentable sugar, so any yeast that can go the distance takes it to about 0.999, and the alcohol is fixed the moment you read the hydrometer: typical store juice at 1.045 makes a 6% cider; a good fresh-pressed 1.055 makes 7.3%. The ABV calculators that rank for this question take OG and FG — after the fact — and the sugar pages assume a juice. Neither asks the one number that decides it:
| Juice | Gravity | ABV dry, standard | Alternate formula |
|---|---|---|---|
| Store juice, watered | 1.040 | 5.4% | 5.3% |
| Store juice, typical | 1.045 | 6% | 6% |
| Store juice, good | 1.050 | 6.7% | 6.7% |
| Fresh-pressed, typical | 1.055 | 7.3% | 7.4% |
| Fresh-pressed, late season | 1.065 | 8.7% | 8.9% |
Ranges as published by ExpertBrewing (1.040–1.050 store) and BYO (1.045–1.050 "a good estimate"; fresh juice to 1.065). Finished at 0.999. At cider gravities the two ABV formulas agree to a tenth. Computed by this page's engine.
Store juice is often "watered down to be about 5 %," as the forums put it, and that's roughly true — a carton at 1.040 is a 5.4% cider. The fix, if you want one, is sugar; but read the next section before reaching for the bag.
How much sugar to raise cider ABV?
Table sugar adds one gravity point per 2.6 g per liter — the "2.6 g/L raises 0.001" rule — and each 7.6 points is a percent of alcohol. So for 5 gallons of 1.045 juice:
| Target, dry | OG needed | Table sugar | Per gallon | Ignoring the sugar's volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6% | 1.045 | none — already there | — | — |
| 7% | 1.052 | 0.87 lb · 0.39 kg | 0.17 lb | 0.8 lb |
| 8% | 1.060 | 1.8 lb · 0.82 kg | 0.36 lb | 1.63 lb |
| 9% | 1.068 | 2.75 lb · 1.25 kg | 0.55 lb | 2.45 lb |
| 10% | 1.075 | 3.74 lb · 1.69 kg | 0.75 lb | 3.28 lb |
| 12% | 1.090 | 5.78 lb · 2.62 kg | 1.16 lb | 4.94 lb |
5 gal of 1.045 juice, finished at 0.999, standard formula. Computed by this page's engine.
A pound of sugar per gallon — the number in half the recipes — turns 1.045 juice into 1.085 and a 11.2% drink. That is a white wine with apple in it, not a cider, and it will taste like one: thin, hot, and needing a year. The forum rule that "a pound in five gallons adds 1.5 %" is 1.1 by the hydrometer. Lifting store juice to 8 % — a strong cider — takes about 1.8 lb in 5 gallons; to 12 %, 5.8.
By the hydrometer, 1 % of alcohol is 7.6 gravity points, which is 19.8 g/L of sucrose. By the chemistry — a gram of sugar makes about half a gram of ethanol — it's nearer 16 g/L, and Sage's calculator prints "16.3 g of sugar per liter yields 1 % ABV." Both are honest; they measure different things. The gravity formula is fitted to what a hydrometer reads before and after, and alcohol itself pulls the final reading below water, so it needs more sugar per apparent percent. This page uses the hydrometer's version throughout, because a hydrometer is what you'll check it with. Expect the chemistry to be a little more generous than the number here.
Which sugar — and why the chart ignores the sugar's volume
The classic chaptalization rule says a pound of sugar in a gallon of water gives 1.045 (Fazekas's page states exactly that and divides by 0.045). A pound of sucrose is worth 46 points per gallon of solution — but dissolved sugar takes up room, about 620 mL per kg, so a pound in a gallon of water makes 1.043 in a slightly bigger gallon. The tables that use 46 and no volume under-dose by about 17% at a pound per gallon. Small, but it's the kind of small that adds up across five sugars:
| Sugar | Points per lb per gal | For +2 % on 5 gal | Adds to the must | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Table sugar (sucrose) | 46 | 1.83 lb · 0.83 kg | 0.52 L | Pure sucrose; the reference. 2.6 g/L per gravity point. |
| Corn sugar (dextrose) | 41.8 | 2.04 lb · 0.93 kg | 0.57 L | Dextrose monohydrate — 9 % of the bag is water of crystallization. |
| Brown sugar | 43 | 1.98 lb · 0.9 kg | 0.56 L | Sucrose with a little moisture and molasses; adds flavor. |
| Honey | 35 | 2.55 lb · 1.16 kg | 0.81 L | ~80 % sugars; the mead page’s figure. Makes a cyser. |
| Frozen apple concentrate | 22 | 4.8 lb · 2.18 kg | 1.85 L | Roughly 1.190 syrup; adds apple, not just alcohol. Varies by brand. |
From 1.045 to 1.060 in 5 gal. Corn sugar needs 11% more than table sugar — it's dextrose monohydrate, the same 9 % of water the priming page explains. Concentrate varies by brand; measure it. Computed by this page's engine.
A hydrometer in a sample jar of juice at room temperature is the whole test. A refractometer works too — juice has no alcohol yet, so no correction is needed; 12 °Brix is about 1.048, and the calculator takes Brix directly. Cartons vary by brand and by season more than the presets above can capture, and "from concentrate" says nothing about how much water went back in. Two minutes with a hydrometer beats every table on this page, including ours.
Where the yeast stops — and why it matters more in cider than in beer
Alcohol tolerance is a stopping point, not a maximum score. A yeast rated 12 % ferments until the alcohol reaches 12 % and then quits, and whatever sugar is still in the must stays there. On plain juice that never happens — 1.045 finishes dry at 6% with any yeast on the shelf. Add sugar and it does:
| Must OG | Ale yeast · 11 % | Cider yeast · 12 % | 71B · 14 % | EC-1118 · 18 % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.045 | 0.999 · 6% dry | 0.999 · 6% dry | 0.999 · 6% dry | 0.999 · 6% dry |
| 1.060 | 0.999 · 8% dry | 0.999 · 8% dry | 0.999 · 8% dry | 0.999 · 8% dry |
| 1.075 | 0.999 · 10% dry | 0.999 · 10% dry | 0.999 · 10% dry | 0.999 · 10% dry |
| 1.090 | 1.006 · 11% 19 g/L sugar left | 0.999 · 11.9% dry | 0.999 · 11.9% dry | 0.999 · 11.9% dry |
| 1.100 | 1.016 · 11% 45 g/L sugar left | 1.009 · 12% 25 g/L sugar left | 0.999 · 13.3% dry | 0.999 · 13.3% dry |
FG = the higher of 0.999 and OG − tolerance ÷ 131.25. Tolerances from the strains' data sheets as reproduced on Demijohn Journal; ale and "cider yeast" figures are typical, not a sheet — edit them on the calculator. Computed by this page's engine.
Howtomakehardcider says EC-1118 "can survive to ~13 % alcohol content or so"; its data sheet says 18. That five-point gap is the difference between a 1.100 must finishing dry and finishing at 1.008 — which is what a real 12 % cider yeast does to it: 1.009, about 25 g/L of sugar, and a live culture. That's the recipe for the next section.
- A stalled fermentation is not a finished one. Yeast that quit at their tolerance will restart when the temperature rises or a stronger strain drifts in. A bottle with 25 g/L of sugar in it has 6× the priming sugar of a normal cider. Glass doesn't survive that.
- Back-sweetening with fermentable sugar — juice, concentrate, honey — before bottling is the same bomb unless the yeast is dead: stabilize with sulfite and sorbate and wait a week, pasteurize the filled bottles, or keg it cold. Non-fermentable sweeteners (erythritol, sucralose, lactose) are the only ones you can add and cap.
- Two stable hydrometer readings, three days apart before any sugar goes near a bottle — and if the reading is above about 1.005 with a live yeast, ask why before you cap.
- If a batch may be over-primed: chill hard, open slowly, and store the first weeks somewhere a failure can't reach anyone. The priming-sugar page carries the full note.
Should I add sugar at all?
Sugar adds alcohol and takes away nothing — which is the problem. Everything you taste in a cider (the acid, the tannin, the apple) came from the juice; dilute it with alcohol and each of those gets thinner while the burn gets louder. A 1.045 juice at 6% is cider, and it's the strength most of the world drinks it at. If you want 7–8 %, the honest route is better juice, or frozen concentrate, which adds apple along with the sugar. If you want 12 %, you want an apple wine, and there's a mead page's worth of yeast-tolerance decisions waiting for you — the calculator above will make them with you. Just don't put the sweet version in a bottle with a live yeast.